Sticky Situation
by Athenaktt
Summary: COMPLETED! SheppardWeir, McKay bets Sheppard that he can't get Elizabeth to touch an alien blob, but not only does Sheppard get Elizabeth to touch it, he gets her hand stuck to his.
1. Default Chapter

**Disclaimer: **Blah Blah I don't won Stargate: Atlantis never have and never will. MGM owns it all. Blah blah blah...

**A/N: **This fic idea came to me while I was opening Christmas gifts…anyways it's a long story, but here is the end product. I hope you guys enjoy it. It is Sheppard/Weir and possible spoilers from "Hot Zone". Enjoy!

**Chapter 1**

Elizabeth stepped out onto the balcony, right outside of the chaos of the control room. Today was a rather tamed and uneventful day, for which she was thankful, and since John Sheppard's team didn't have to go off world today, she wouldn't have to worry about the trouble he could get himself into today at least. Their mission today was to fly out to the main land and check up on the Athosians, their crops and such. She was sure, or at least she hoped, John would be able to keep out of trouble there.

She leaned forward on the balcony railing and took in a deep breath of fresh air. The sound of the ocean around her was calming and refreshing. She was glad to finally get out of the briefing room. She was in there all morning listening to a bunch of scientists over-excitedly explaining the significance of a new gadget they found in another of the Ancient labs within the city. All Elizabeth could remember was that the gadget was something equivalent to a solar powered night light. Just thinking about the meeting earlier was giving her a headache. Then when she remembered she had another meeting with another group of scientists in the next hour her headache seemed to get worse.

She decided for her own sake, she would forget about the meetings for now and relax until some else comes nagging her for something. For some reason she felt her moment of peace would be disturbed by a certain Major who really knew how to push her buttons. In the meantime, she stood on the balcony feeling the cool breeze blow by clearing her thoughts.

* * *

As John sat back in the puddle jumper pilot seat waiting for the jumper to ease down into the jumper bay, he was glad his little mission to the mainland was over. He was ready to get some lunch. Not that Athosian food was bad or anything, he just wanted to eat some earth food while he still could, at least before McKay, hoarded it all. There would be plenty of time later for his stomach to adapt to Tava beans.

Just as the soon as the jumper came to a stop, John got up picked up his backpack and things. "All right kids it's chow time," he said, and headed out past Teyla, Lieutenant Ford, and McKay.

"Chow time?" Teyla gave a questioning look to Ford, who looked to McKay for help in explaining earth slang for the nth time of the day.

"Chow time is a slang to say it's time to eat," Rodney explained. Teyla's expression remained inquisitive. "It means he's hungry," he simply answered and quickly walked down the ramp and nearly bumping into the Major, who was standing on the right side of the jumper staring at a bright green blob stuck on the side of the jumper.

"What the hell is that?" Rodney asked when he finally noticed the blob that occupied the Major's attention.

"You're asking me? Who do I ask?" Teyla and Ford were coming up behind them. "Teyla have you ever seen this before?"

"No, Major, I have not. It might have come from the mainland, and there are things on the mainland that I'm as not familiar with as much as you, Major."

"I guess not." John started poking the small ping pong ball sized blob with the tip of his P-90. "It looks like some sort of sticky thingy."

"Did you just say 'sticky thingy'?"

"What would you call that blob?"

"I'd call it an alien adhesive."

"That's much better." John rolled his eyes and continued poking in the blob with his gun.

"I dare you to touch it," McKay said with a boyish grin.

"What? How old are you, Rodney?"

"What? Look at it. It's a bright green blob on the side of a space ship. It's obviously not a living organism."

"Obviously."

"And you obviously don't want that thing stuck on your ship, so I dare you to take it off yourself." Rodney dared again.

"Fine then, I will," John let go of his gun and with his right hand carefully poked at the blob to make sure it wasn't alive and going to eat him alive. The blob had a smooth sticky texture like rubbery glue. After a couple more test pokes, John got brave enough to pull the green blob off the side of his ship. He held the sticky glob between his fingers and started to roll it into a ball. "It's like silly putty only stickier."

"Now that we've determined that the strange green blob won't be eating us alive, can we go and eat now? I don't want to have a hypoglycemic reaction because the Major here wants to play wit h space play-doh," Rodney said with his usual impatience.

"You dared me to touch it and I did. What do I get?" John asked holding out the green blob in front of Rodney's face.

"Well, it doesn't count. We didn't agree on a bet before your grubby little hands grabbed the thing of the side of the ship." Rodney crossed his arms over his chest.

"Hey, whose hands are you calling little?"

"All right, let's make another bet. I bet that as persuasive as you can be, you can't get Elizabeth to touch that," Rodney challenged.

"What do I get if I _do_ get Elizabeth to touch the blob?"

"I'll give you one hundred dollars."

"It's a bet." John turned to Teyla and gave her a sweet smile that seemed instead only to frighten her. "Teyla, would you like to touch this harmless little blob?"

Teyla looked a John oddly and made a face as she looked at the blob on his hand. "Harmless it maybe, but I do not wish to touch that…thing. Good luck getting Doctor Weir to touch it, especially when you smile like that."

"Come on, don't be a wuss. Ford?"

"Is it an order, sir?" Ford asked slightly concerned of the answer.

John thought for a bit. "No, but I could do that."

"No, thank you. Sir," Ford quickly answered and followed Teyla and McKay out of the jumper bay.

* * *

Elizabeth was now leaning on the side of one of the beams on the balcony like she always did. She heard the side door to the balcony slide open. Without looking she knew it was Major John Sheppard. Only the major would dare come out to the balcony and disturb her solitary peace. Not that she minded. He always seemed to have a way of getting her to smile even when he wasn't trying.

She could hear him walking up behind her and dropping his back pack next to her. She turned her head towards the sound where he dropped his backpack. "What can I do for you, Major?" She opened her eyes to see nothing to her right. She was slightly confused. She knew she heard him come out to the balcony and drop something next to her. She looked down and saw the black backpack that definitely belonged to the Major.

"How did you know it was me?" The Major's voice came from her left side.

She turned to see that John was standing next to her on the other side of the balcony beam. His right hand was faced up with some sort of bright green blob on it.

"Major, only you would dare come out to the balcony when I'm out here alone. Even Rodney stays away from me when I'm out here."

"Really? I always thought you were just admiring the view," he said innocently.

"Well, I am."

"So I'm not disturbing you, right?"

"Not usually."

"Well…if I'm disturbing you know now, I could come back later," he said, about to turn back towards the control room.

Elizabeth placed her hand on his arm, "It's all right John, and you're not bothering me right now. What can I help you with?" She assured.

John cleared his throat. "Well…," John quickly tried to formulate a way to tell Elizabeth about the childish bet he made with Rodney without it sounding childish. "You know how me, Rodney and my team were on the mainland, and the Athosians and their crops are doing great." John was rambling and he could see Elizabeth raise her eyebrows as if to tell him to get to the point. "Anyways, when we got back, I found this," he brought up his right palm and showed Elizabeth the unidentifiable green substance. "It was stuck on the side of the jumper's hull. McKay said that it was obviously a non-living organism, but some sort of alien adhesive."

"Adhesive?" Elizabeth gave him an inquisitive look.

"Yeah, adhesive, and he dared me to touch it and I did."

"Okay…should I reward you with a gold star for being a brave little Major?" Elizabeth teased.

"Now here's the kicker."

"Kicker?"

"McKay bet me hundred dollars saying that you wouldn't touch it," John finished with a smirk.

"Canadian or American?"

"What?" John was confused by Elizabeth's unexpected question.

"Did he bet you Canadian or American dollars?"

"Damn, I didn't ask. That sneaky bastard is probably going to rip me off and give me Canadian," he muttered to himself.

"No."

"Come on, Elizabeth, It's harmless. Look." He poked the sticky blob with his finger. Elizabeth made a disgusted face. "Come on, Elizabeth, don't you want to do something risky at one point in your life?"

"I'm in Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy, which is another galaxy from home. I'd say that's taking some risk there."

"Then touching a sticky green blob would be nothing in comparison."  
"No," Elizabeth said flatly. John gave her a defeated look. "Major, you are usually able to persuade me to do many things; this is not going to be one of them."

"I thought you wouldn't be afraid to touch a harmless blob."

"Why would you think that?"

John thought for bit and came up with a quick explanation. "You're one of those cool bosses who wouldn't send one of her men to a huge block of ice, because he defied orders to save his comrades, and you always forgive and forget," he finished with his sweetest smile.

"I may have forgiven you for that nano-virus incident, but I have definitely _not_ forgotten. And we never did finish that conversation…" Elizabeth trailed off when she noticed the guilty look that crossed John's face, which only brought a smile to her face.

"Oh," was all John could say before he quickly returned to his mission at hand. "You don't have to touch it touch it, just poke at it or something."

"And Rodney would believe you that I "touched" the blob?"

"Probably not, he'd probably make you touch it again in front of him."

"Then there is no point of me touching it now."

"Come on, Elizabeth," John attempted again.

"Sorry, John, I'm leaving now." Just as she took a step back, she stepped onto John's backpack and lost her balance. Elizabeth instinctively shot her hand out and grabbed John's closest hand to her to prevent her from hitting the ground. She would have hated to have to add a visit to the infirmary as part of her schedule.

At the same time, John, seeing Elizabeth about to topple from his misplaced backpack, shot out his hand other free hand to catch Elizabeth around her waist to keep her from falling.

Elizabeth's eyes were closed as she waited to impact the cold balcony floor, but it never came. Instead she realized there was a strong arm around her waist. The arm had rescued her from her fall. She opened her eyes to see that she was face to face with John's green eyes looking back at her with concern.

"Are you all right?" he asked concerned.

"I think so. Are you trying to kill me?"

"No, that was another bet I made with Rodney that I didn't tell you about," he teased as he helped her stand up straight, but his arm was still around her waist and her hand was still in his.

"And what was this other bet?"

"It was to see if I could get you to dance with me?" he replied with another smirk.

"I wouldn't call this dancing."

"If someone walked out here now, they would think we were dancing."

"Good try. But we are not dancing, so could you please let go of me, Major?" He let go of her waist and took a step back away from her.

"You can let go of my hand too." She nodded to her left hand that was still connected to the Major's right.

"I did let go, you let go."

"No, I _did_ let go, you let go already?" Both of them had let go of each other's hand, but their palms were still stuck together.

"Uh-oh," John said with a concerned look.

"Uh-oh? I don't like the sound of that."

"That's the hand that had the sticky blob on it."

Elizabeth made a face, "Are you saying I'm touching that thing that I didn't want to touch?"

"I think so."

Both of them turned their heads and tried to see if it was the green glob that was sticking their palms together. Instead of seeing anything, they ended up bumping into each other's head.

"Ow, sorry," both said in unison.

"Ladies first." John gestured for Elizabeth to look first. Elizabeth let out a sigh when she saw a bright green colored substance oozed between their palms. "That bad, huh?"

"Let's try pulling our hands apart, then," Elizabeth suggested.

They both used all their strength to pull their hands apart, but nothing happened. The only thing that happened was that their faces were turning blue and their hands were still stuck together.

"This is some adhesive," Elizabeth commented when she got her breath back.

"Tell me about it."

"Maybe we can try cutting through it with your dagger."

"My dagger? Are you sure?"

"Yes," Elizabeth firmly but with a hint of uncertainty.

John took out his dagger and slowly positioned their hands so he could use his left hand to wedge the dagger between their palms. He started picking on the green blob with the tip of the dagger. It seemed to be working. He was able to cut the blob a centimeter in before he heard Elizabeth yelp in pain, and he saw a spot of bright red blood ooze from between their palms.

"I'm so sorry," he apologized and tried to wipe her bold with his fingers, but it only made the blood smear on their palms. "I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

"No, you just cut me."

"I'm sorry it was an accident."

Elizabeth looked at her hand and saw that it was still bleeding, looked like that trip to the infirmary was still going to be added to her schedule. "Let's go to the infirmary. Maybe Carson can figure something out."

As they walked out of the doors of the balcony back into the control room, Elizabeth tried to hide the fact that she was stuck holding hands with John, while John was too concerned with Elizabeth's cut still bleeding.

The sight of the Major following Doctor Weir was not a strange sight to anyone in the control room. Someone was always following Doctor Weir and that someone usually ended up being either Major Sheppard or Doctor McKay. This time it was Major Sheppard, but this time Peter Grodin noticed an uneasiness in Doctor Weir's expression and guilt written all over the Major's face. Then as the pair zipped past him, Grodin thought he saw Doctor Weir holding the Major's hand. He always sensed something between the two of them, but this unexpected hand holding caught him off guard. Before he could process anything in his head, the Doctor and the Major were gone.

* * *

Elizabeth entered the infirmary with the major in tow. She was relieved to find only Carson in there stooping over a microscope. Everyone else must have left for lunch break already.

Carson drew his attention away from the microscope and smiled at his visitors.

"Doctor Weir, Major, how can I help you today?" he asked in his Scottish accent.

"Carson," Elizabeth returned his smile as she moved forward and hid the problem behind her as John stood next to her. "The Major and I have gotten ourselves into a sticky situation."

"'Sticky situation' doesn't sound too good," Carson commented.

"No not good at all," John muttered to himself. Elizabeth nudged him with her elbow to be quiet. He feigned hurt, but remained quiet.

"I don't know how to say this but—" Elizabeth was interrupted by Rodney's entrance into the infirmary behind them.

"Is that your hand on Elizabeth's ass?" Rodney asked rather loudly. Elizabeth's face turned red as blood rushed to her cheeks, and John's eyes widened in surprise and his eyebrows arched in question. Carson just looked at the three in complete confusion.

John decided it was time he did the explaining since Elizabeth looked like she had forgotten how to breathe at the moment.

"Rodney," John said slowly as he turned to face him. "No, my hand is _not_ on Elizabeth's ass," John brought up their conjoined hands to show Carson. "This is our sticky situation. Our hands are stuck together by some alien adhesive, and we've tried to pull our hands apart, and we even tried to cut our hands apart with a dagger. We decided to stop before I cut the top layer of Elizabeth's hand off."

Carson noticed the drying blood on their palms. "Are you hurt badly?" he asked Elizabeth.

Elizabeth shook her head. "It's only a small cut, but I thought I'd let you take a look at it." Carson immediately put some rubbing alcohol on her cut to clean the wound.

As the two doctors occupied their time discussing the situation, John turned towards McKay, "you owe me a hundred _American_ dollars."

"Who said anything about American dollars," McKay asked grinning at the Major's sticky situation.

"I should have had shot you in the head that last time you were testing that personal shield."

"Even if you shot me in the head, I was still invulnerable then."

"You're not invulnerable now," John reminded Rodney.

"Anyways, I see you're busy with Doctor Weir. I'll see the both of you later." John could hear Rodney laugh at his expense as he disappeared from the infirmary entrance. He returned his attention to Doctor Beckett and saw that he had already cleaned and bandaged the cut on Elizabeth's palm, and was now trying to scrape off samples of the green blob into a test tube.

"Take as many samples as you want," John said bitterly.

"I take this isn't silly putty," Carson said as he scraped another piece into the glass test tube.

"You know what silly putty is? I thought that was an American thing," John asked.

"How long will it take before the tests come back," Elizabeth asked to keep the two men on task.

"It will take me a couple hours to run a full test of the chemical make up of this foreign substance. I'll have to let Rodney take a look at it as well. I'll definitely call you as soon as I get the some results back."

"All right, take your time, Carson,"

"Don't take too much time, though," John chimed in.

"I need to go to a briefing in half an hour anyway," Elizabeth continued before John's interruption.

"Briefing? I'm supposed to have the rest of the day off." John was not happy about this unexpected turn of events.

"Welcome to my life, Major."

"Can we at least get some food? I'm starving." Elizabeth only gave him a look and led him out of the infirmary.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: **Okay instead working at work, I was writing this chapter when my supervisor wasn't looking, and I don't know how I even managed to write this much. Anyways thanks for all the reviews, reviews always have a way to make one feel all fluffy inside. I think there would be one more chapter for this fic. Maybe I'll slack off at work again and write the next chapter. ;) Anyways enjoy!_

_Thank you Astrochick for Beta-ing this chapter, and because I also have a practical mind wink wink I decided to add a couple more things into the chapter. ;) _

**Chapter 2**

John was ready to claw his eyes out from boredom. How these nerds sat at the briefing room table and babbled about what looked like a night-light for over an hour was beyond him. John was starting to wonder how Elizabeth sat through these types of meetings every single day. He thought the usual mission briefings were boring, but this was just plain torture.

He sat next to Elizabeth in the conference room, instead of across from her in his usual seat, because of their present sticky situation. He watched her as she sit with her chin resting on her free hand as she listened intently to the four babbling scientists. She tended to nod every once and a while to something some doctor said. She was silent most of the meeting except to ask a question or two about the advantages or disadvantages of their new findings.

John couldn't believe that Elizabeth could actually retain interest to what these scientists were saying for the past hour. Either she was a very good actress or she was actually interested in what they were saying. From the blank look on Elizabeth's face, John concluded that she was as bored as him. However, ever the diplomat, she was able to retain her composure and patiently sit through all the meetings and briefings.

He suddenly felt a growling coming from his stomach. He was still hungry. When he suggested getting lunch after they left the infirmary, Elizabeth said that there wasn't enough time and they went straight to her office to prepare for this boring as hell meeting. Actually hell wouldn't be boring, he thought for a moment, but it didn't matter if hell was boring or not. He was bored and hungry. The Powerbar Elizabeth gave to ease his hunger temporarily, only lasted the two minutes it took to travel from his mouth to this stomach, and he was hungry again. He could really use a turkey sandwich right about now. Then his thoughts turned back to Elizabeth. Maybe that's how she stayed so thin, she hardly had any time to eat.

"That sounds like good news, keep up the research and keep me apprised. Meeting adjourned." John heard Elizabeth say signaling the end of the meeting.

As soon as the last scientist shuffled out of the room, John pleaded to Elizabeth, "Can we go eat yet? I'm starving. If I was McKay, I would have passed by now out and you would be dragging my body around."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at John's exaggeration. "Yes, we can go eat now."

* * *

They arrived at the mess hall to find several other crew members having a late lunch. Those who did not hear about the Major and Doctor's situation couldn't stop themselves from staring at the two holding hands. Those who have heard of the two's awkward predicament also could not help but stare at the sight as well.

Elizabeth was uncomfortable and embarrassed, while John was annoyed and hungry. John gave a death glare to a scientist that was sitting at the table across from them.

"Do they have to keep staring at us? It's like they've never seen two people holding hands," he complained, taking a bite into his sandwich, while Elizabeth was picking at her gob of food with her fork. She put a piece of chicken, at least she thought it was chicken, in her mouth and involuntarily made a face.

"Actually they've never seen the two of _you_ holding hands," a voice noted from behind them.

"Rodney," Elizabeth said.

"Mckay," John greeted with a warning tone in his voice. Rodney sat himself down across from them. "Why are you here?" John asked.

"Don't worry Major. I'm not here to gloat or make fun of you and your sad attempt to win a bet with me. Carson sent me to look for the two of you," he said as he picked off a piece of what looked like chicken from Elizabeth's plate. "Is there lemon in this?" he asked.

"When Beckett separates us, you better hope there's lemon in here." With that small threat, John got up without any warning to Elizabeth, which caused Elizabeth to jerk out of her seat abruptly. She managed to grab her tin cup of water as John dragged her along to towards the infirmary.

When she caught up to John, she saw he was still eating his sandwich.

"You should have warned me," she said.

"Warn you about what?" he asked with his mouth full.

"Warn me that you were going to get up like that. I wasn't done eating yet."

"Oh, I thought you were done. You were kind of fiddling around with it," he explained making a swirl with his finger.

"It's not the most enjoyable food," she noted.

"That's why I stick to the sandwiches, at least what's left of them."

"At the rate you and Rodney eat them, we won't have any left by the end of the month," she reminded.

"Then I'll have no choice but to eat that gunk you were eating earlier."

"In time, we won't even have that 'gunk' left either, but we would have plenty of Tava beans."

"Yum," John simply said.

Moments later they stepped out of the transport and arrived at the lab. Carson was analyzing the green substance through a microscope.

"So what's the diagnosis Doc?" John asked with cheerful hope.

"Frankly, I don't know what it is. But from the analysis the substance has the basic components that make up the most basic types of glue, which are mostly organic components."

"Wait," John stopped Carson, "Organic components?"

"Organic components, like acrylic polymer, borax, polyethylene glycol," Rodney started to rattle off when he entered the lab. "All these components are the basic ingredients for glue, glue sticks, and such, but we also found cyanoacrylate which is the main ingredient for super glue."

"So what are you saying Rodney?" Elizabeth asked.

"What I'm saying is that there is a possibility that this thing is basically your basic chop suey mix of glue. And maybe the usual cleaning methods of glue would work," Rodney explained.

"And those usual cleaning methods include?"

"Acetone or warm water should do the trick."

"Are you sure this would work?"

"Actually, there is something else," Carson managed to interject. "There is something else odd that we found in the samples."

"What is this 'something else'?" Elizabeth asked not sure she wanted to know.

"We still don't know, it's nothing we've ever seen before," Carson said.

"I knew you were going to say that," John muttered.

"But we are going to try the home earth remedies first. If they work, they work. If not, then you're stuck with the Major a while longer," Rodney said matter-of-factly.

"That is very reassuring Rodney," Elizabeth said sarcastically. "All right Carson, keep me apprised of your results."

"Okay where to?" John asked when they walked out of the lab. Elizabeth only had to give John a look and he groaned. "Not another briefing."

"Yes, just because you are incapacitated, doesn't mean everyone else stops working."

"Incapacitated? That sounds a bit harsh. I wouldn't say I'm incapacitated. I'm only stuck holding your hand." Elizabeth gave him a look. "Not that holding your hand all day is a bad thing," he tried to save himself, "This kind of reminds me of the time when I was handcuffed to a buddy of mine back in college."

Elizabeth gave me a questioning look.

"We were in college and drunk off our asses. It was a dare and we thought what the hell and clasped the cuffs on our wrist. Couple of hours later we realized that there were no keys to the cuffs, and there were no locksmiths open at two in the morning. So I ended having to go every where he wanted to go."

"So where did your friend want to go at two in the morning?"

"Apparently he wanted to go bow down to the porcelain god after too many shots of bad liquor."

Elizabeth made a face of disgust, "That is a little too much information, Major." Then Elizabeth had a thought of horror cross her mind, "You don't need to go to the bathroom right?"

"No, not yet," John replied with out thinking much about the question.

"Good," said Elizabeth with some relief, "Can we walk a little faster. I'm going to be late for my 15:00 briefing with Sergeant Bates."

John made a face and quickened his pace to keep up with Elizabeth.

* * *

Elizabeth was trying to concentrate on the details of Sergeant Bates last mission, but no matter how hard she tried to concentrate, every slight movement John made only distracted her.

She could tell he was becoming restless. Not to mention her arms were falling asleep from hanging from the side of the chair for so long. She also had a constant urge to bring her left hand up on to the table, so she could clasp her hands together as she leaned forward. But because she was stuck to the Major, she leaned back into her chair to the point where she was almost slouching like the bored Major next to her.

She stole a glance at the Major, and saw he looked beyond bored. He was starting to fiddle with his jacket pockets, and he found a comb in one of the pockets. Elizabeth nearly burst out laughing, when she saw the confused expression that crossed John's face when he found the comb. It was obvious he had never used it, or knew it even existed until now. Luckily, Elizabeth remembered Sergeant Bates was still talking, and she masked her laugh as a cough.

John was amused to find to comb in his pocket. The small black comb made him think about the Fonz on that old show _Happy Days_. He remembered the Fonz being cool. The man snapped his fingers and women came flocking to him. When he snapped his fingers… He never really snapped his fingers for any response before. He'd have to try that later.

As he was thinking up possible scenarios of what would happen if he snapped his fingers, he absent-mindedly slid his thumb over the comb's teeth making a slight zipping noise, which started to distract Elizabeth even more since she was paying more attention to John then to the last bit of detail Bates was reporting.

Next she felt her left arm moving slightly. She looked down to see that John had decided to use the comb as an extension of his arm to scratch an itch on his hand. Apparently his itch had also crossed over to her hand, and instead of scratching his own hand, he was scratching hers as well.

Elizabeth had reached her limit. With a quick flick of her wrist, John was jolted out of his musings, and he gave a sharp look in Elizabeth's direction. She promptly ignored him, and prepared to conclude the briefing.

"Thank you, Sergeant. I'm glad your mission went well. You may leave."

"Thank you, Ma'am," Sergeant Bates promptly replied and exited the conference room as the doors opened.

"What was that all about?" John asked after the Sergeant and his team left the room.

"What was what about? That was a briefing, John, you know what briefings are. We have one everyday," Elizabeth said rising from her seat.

John got up from his seat as well. "You know. When you flicked your wrist and—"

"Scared you?" she finished.

"No, more like," he thought for a second, "surprised me."

"I'm sorry I 'surprised' you," she said, starting to walk towards her office. "You look like you were having a little too much fun for a minute there."

"As a matter of fact, I was having fun, and you interrupted."

"I'm sorry I interrupted," Elizabeth replied, as they walked through the busy control room. Suddenly John decided to snap his fingers. Everyone including Elizabeth stopped to look at him oddly then returned to what they were doing.

"Hm, nothing happened," John mumbled to himself.

"What was that all about?" Elizabeth asked confused. She was starting to wonder if that green blob wasn't as harmless as they thought.

"I was wondering what would happen if I snapped my fingers like the Fonz." Elizabeth stared back blankly at him, and then continued to walk into her office. John thought back to what he just said and realized he sounded crazy. "You think I'm crazy."

"We are all a little crazy, John. You're just that you are acting a little strange."

"I'm only acting strange because I've been sitting in briefings more hours then I usually sleep. I could have been watching football or reading my book."

"How is your progress of reading that book?" Elizabeth asked.

"I'm on page seventy-seven, and I'm still right on schedule."

Elizabeth sat down at her desk and flipped open her laptop and started scanning through some reports. John pulled a chair next to her so he wouldn't have to stand. He sat there watching Elizabeth work.

"How do you do this?" John suddenly asked as he picked up the gold pocket watch that was lying on her desk.

"Do what?"

"Go to briefings and meetings all day, read reports, deal with me, and etcetera?"

"It's called being the commander of this expedition. As for dealing with you, I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I requested to have you on my team."

"You're having regrets?" he asked.

"Not a chance," she said with a smile. Elizabeth returned to her work, while John started to get bored again and put the pocket watch back on the table. He reached across her table and grabbed on the statue on the left corner of her table. He set the small statue in front of him and observed the details of the sculpture of the miniaturized terracotta warrior.

"Of all the office decorations on earth, why bring this?" John asked.  
"Because it's nice," Elizabeth said without looking up.

"Does it have sentimental value?"

"Yes," she said slowly. She hesitated and continued, "My boyfriend, Simon, gave it to me."

"Boyfriend? Back on Earth I presume?" Elizabeth nodded. "So how's the long distance thing working out for you?"

"I don't know."

John furrowed his eyebrows in question. "What do you mean?"

"I mean. When I came here, I didn't exactly tell him in person."

"On the phone?" Elizabeth shook her head. "E-mail?" She shook her head again. "A letter?" he tried again.

"Video," she supplied. John made a face. "So I don't know how Simon took the news. He may hate me for all I know. Or he might even had moved on already," Elizabeth said.

"Do you miss him?"

"Not as much as I should," she confessed. "I mean, ever since we got here. I've been so busy trying to keep everyone alive. I hadn't really had time to think about Simon. The last time I even thought about him was when we went to that mist planet and imagined we went back to earth. Even then all I could think about was…you."

"Me?" John asked curiously.

"And how Atlantis would fall apart with you in charge," she added quickly.

"Thanks, I think," John replied. He put the statue back in the corner of the desk.

Elizabeth looked over at John and decided she should give up working. As long as she was stuck to John, she would be too distracted to work.

"All right, I'm done for the day. What do you want to do?"

"John sat there and thought for a bit. "Usually when I'm bored I like to take a stroll to the southwest pier. It has the best view of the city, especially at night."

"The southwest pier. Isn't that where you took Chaya on for a 'picnic' when she came a couple months back?" She thought out loud. "So how was it? Did you have fun?"

"The 'picnic' you are referring to was strictly business. Besides I don't picnic and tell," he said with a wink.

"I thought it was kiss and tell."

John looked at Elizabeth and tried to decipher the meaning of her statement. He wondered what Rodney told Elizabeth about his fling with Chaya. Maybe Elizabeth didn't know and she was trying to get him to tell. Either way he wasn't going to crack.

"Let's go then," he got up and started to lead Elizabeth to the southwest pier.

Just as they got up ready to go, the intercom called for Elizabeth to head to the lab.

"What now?" John wondered, "They couldn't have found a solution already, could they?"

"I don't know. Let's go and find out," Elizabeth shrugged and went to the nearest transporter.

They arrived at the lab to find smoke everywhere.

"What happened?" Elizabeth asked coughing through the choking smoke.

"You know how acetone is highly flammable?" Rodney managed to cough out.

"Yes, we know, but what happened?" Elizabeth asked again as she tried to wave away the smoke.

"Well, the green blob sample reacted badly with the acetone, instead of dissolving, it caused it to ignite," Rodney explained. "Good thing we tested in the lab first."

"No kidding," John muttered.

"What about water?" Elizabeth asked.

"Good news is water doesn't do anything to it."

"That is good news?" John said.

"Of course, you wouldn't have to worry your hands blowing up in case water was spilled on it. Just keep away from acetone or any flammable chemicals."

"Thanks for the advice," John commented. "Come on, lets go before we suffocate to death in here." John waved away some more smoke and lead Elizabeth to their previous destination of the southwest pier.

* * *

By the time they reached the southwest pier, it was already dark, but the view was still spectacular.

"I thought we'd never get here. How many detours did we have? I lost count after Rodney decided to blow up the lab by putting acetone on the blob."

"I think about five detours. Including your little detour to the mess hall for your picnic basket, and the detour to the little boy's room for you," Elizabeth added and made a face when she remembered the experience of going to the men's room with John. She had never been so embarrassed in her life, but nature eventually caught up to her as well, and she was forced to make John come into the women's room with her. She didn't know how he felt, but she knew if one could die of embarrassment, she died at least twice already that day, and the day wasn't over yet.

"Don't even start. You had to go to the little princess's room too, and besides I was only being prepared. It's a long walk out here, and look, it's about time to eat dinner." He set the basket down and pulled out a blanket. He tried to unfold the blanket with one hand without success. Elizabeth reached over and took one end of the blanket, and with team work they were able to open the blanket and laid it on the floor.

John thanked Elizabeth for her extra hand and settled the basket next to him. He led Elizabeth to sit on one side and he sat on the other.

Elizabeth sat down and admired the view. She was gazing up at the stars, while John started shuffling through the basket, and laying things out on the blanket.

"Despite the fact that our hands are stuck together and this isn't a date, this is almost quite…," she paused, searching for the right word, "romantic," she finished.

"Well you know. I got to take that extra step of gluing my hand to a girl if I want to date her. It never fails they always go on the dates. Whether they want to or not," he winked. Elizabeth chuckled at his joke.

"Too bad this isn't a date," John said casually.

"If this was a date, what would you do?" Elizabeth asked curiously.

"Well, I'd serenade you, recite poetry, tell you how beautiful your hair looks, say how your—," he stopped for a second to look into Elizabeth's eyes, "green eyes shimmer like emeralds. You know stuff like that."

Elizabeth was amused by John's exaggerations.

"You're quite the Romeo," she commented. "No wonder Chaya was quite taken by you, and willing to put her planet at risk to spend a day with you," she teased.

John ignored what she said and handed her a bag that looked to contain a sandwich.

"I hope you don't mind sandwiches for dinner. It was the easiest food I could get with only one hand available."

"Let me guess, Turkey?" Elizabeth asked.

"Of course," he said with a boyish smile.

"You know that turkey makes you sleepy right?"

"Yes, how else do you think I sleep so soundly after my hard day of work?"

"Because you had a hard day at work," Elizabeth answered his rhetorical question.

"You know what? You've been hanging around Rodney too much. That's not good you know. He's starting to rub off on you."

"And being stuck with you for an indefinite amount of time is good for me?"

"Of course, my wit and charm can rub off on you." Elizabeth rolled her eyes. The only thing of his that would rub off on her was probably his after shave, she thought.

"Too bad acetone and any conventional method of cleaning off super glue doesn't work on this," Elizabeth sighed.

John pretended to look hurt, "You're sick of me already?"

"As amusing as you are Major, it has been a long day and I'm tired. I have a feeling Rodney and Carson aren't going to figure this out by our bed time."

"I see where this is going. So you're place or mine?"

"What?" Elizabeth's eyes widened in surprise.

"Well, as for sleeping arrangements, we obviously can't go to our respective rooms. One of us will have to sleep over at the other's place."

Elizabeth hesitated. He was right. Maybe they could crash in the infirmary, but the infirmary atmosphere was not really where she wanted to end her day, but it was an alternative.

"What about the infirmary? We could crash there," Elizabeth suggested.

"Yeah, but all those beeping machines make me uncomfortable, and those beds. They aren't as comfortable as they look. Believe me. I know."

Elizabeth let out a sigh. She didn't feel like having John spend the night in her room, frankly because it was _her_ room, _her_ quiet place. John's room was neat from what she remembered. She guessed she could spend the night at his place, but people would talk.

"So my place then?" John asked after Elizabeth's silence.

"John, people would talk," she finally said.

"People always talk. Besides it shouldn't matter if what ever they talk about isn't true."

"Okay, if you were someone else and you saw your expedition commander holding hands with the lead military commander all day, and they end up disappearing from the main part of the city with a picnic basket. Then they end up spending the night together. What would you think?" Elizabeth asked.

"I'd think they were 'so doing it'," he joked.

"Okay, the infirmary it is."

"Elizabeth, I'm kidding. Everyone knows about our little problem right now. No one is going to talk about us. Other then, 'next time you see a green blob, don't touch it, or you'll ended up like Doctor Weir and Major Sheppard.'"

Elizabeth was still hesitant. He said, "Come on, we'll stay in my room. I'll even let you have the bed."

"What about you?" Elizabeth asked.

"I can fall asleep any where, even sitting in a chair." Elizabeth smiled when she remembered him falling asleep waiting in the infirmary for her to speak with the older version of herself.

"All right," she finally conceded.

* * *

The hallways were quiet and empty since they started heading back from the southwest pier quite late. After they finished their picnic dinner, they sat and gazed at the stars and soaked in the cool evening breeze. Elizabeth was relieved that John had no qualms about staying out there either. It was nice and he enjoyed Elizabeth's company, when she wasn't on commander mode. This evening they were just two friends admiring the Atlantean view.

Before they reached John's room, they made a couple pit stops. First John insisted on them stopping by the mess hall to drop off the picnic basket, while in fact he was looking for a midnight snack. Then Elizabeth decided, she wanted to go to her room and grab an extra blanket just in case.

By the time they reached John's room, Elizabeth was exhausted, and John could tell Elizabeth was trying a bit too hard to keep her eyes open.

"All right, you get the bed," he said when they walked in to his room. He pulled a chair over next to the bed and moved his night stand so he could prop the chair by the wall close to the bed.

Elizabeth sat down on the bed and kicked off her shoes. After pulling the covers back, she laid her head down on the pillow and immediately felt sleep come to her. The last thing she remembered was John's scent on his pillow and sheets before she fell into a dreamless sleep.

When John finally settled himself down in a comfortable position in the chair, he saw that Elizabeth had already fallen asleep. He pulled the blanket over her shoulder since it slipped off when she stirred a bit. He leaned back into the chair with his head against the wall. He used the extra blanket Elizabeth brought to cover himself.

He didn't think he would ever fall asleep in this position, or if he did, he would wake up very cranky tomorrow.

He turned his head to watch Elizabeth sleep, she looked at peace and beautiful as she dreamt of less chaotic times. John kept his gaze on Elizabeth and eventually fell asleep as well.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** Yada yada yada, I don't own _Stargate: Atlantis_, MGM does, blah blah blah.

_**A/N: **Just want to thank everyone for the reviews, and my Beta Astrochick for going through my nonsensical errors. The final chapter should be up as soon as my Beta has time to go over my grammar issues. ;) Thanks again. _

**Chapter 3**

Elizabeth awoke with her right side sore from sleeping on it all night. She lifted her head a bit and saw that John was still asleep. He was right. He could sleep anywhere. She wondered if that was part of his military training to be able to sleep anywhere.

She thought about trying to get up, but then she figured what was the point, it was not like she could go anywhere. She looked at her watch it was 06:30. Her first meeting wasn't until 08:00. She couldn't wait to tell John they had another briefing to attend to today. She had thought about canceling it, since she had a feeling that she wasn't going to be able to concentrate on this meeting either, with John still attached to her. Maybe she should just cancel all her meetings for the rest of the day and find a solution to this mess by the end of the day. Elizabeth decided that would be the best, but she thought teasing John with an early briefing was tempting.

"You're awake." She heard John say.

Elizabeth sat up on the bed and turned to face him. "How do you feel?"

"Like I slept in the most uncomfortable chair the whole night," John said, trying to massage the back of his neck with his one hand.

"I told you. If we crashed at the infirmary, you wouldn't have that problem."

"If we stayed in the infirmary, both of us would have a neck ache. So you should be thanking me instead of giving me the 'I told you so' speech." John tilted his head back and forth to stretch his neck muscles. "In fact, I think you owe me a massage."

"Why is that?"

"Because I was a gentleman and let you have the bed."

"I see. That's not a good enough argument, and you have no proof that you let me have the bed."

"This pain in my neck is proof enough. Beckett can prove that I have bad pain in my neck."

"Still, you have no witnesses. For all anyone knows you might have made me sleep on the floor," she said.

"For all anyone knows, we've might have slept in the same bed," John shot back with smirk.

Elizabeth was about to reply, but instead started yawning.

"Tired?" John asked.

"Yes, despite the fact I was on the bed, I am still tired."

"I bet," John said with an impish smile.

Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows when she saw his devious smile. She narrowed her eyes and decided it was time she interrogated him.

"What is that suppose to mean?"

John's smile widened into a grin. He found out something interesting about Doctor Elizabeth Weir last night, and he was sure no one else in Atlantis knew about her little quirk. He decided he had to take advantage of that fact.

"Major, I think you need to explain yourself," Elizabeth asked with a commanding tone.

As he observed Elizabeth's expression, he couldn't resist any more and decided to have fun at Elizabeth's expense. After all, she did get the bed.

"You, my dear Doctor Weir, talk in your sleep."

Elizabeth was speechless. She knew she had talked in her sleep a couple times before, but it wasn't a common occurrence. She remembered Simon told her she did before, but usually during a nightmare or uneasy sleep. She remembered Simon telling her that the things she said were a bunch of nonsense or just didn't make sense to the conscious person in the first place. But the look on John's face worried her. She quickly tired to remember what she might have been dreaming about during the night, but nothing came to mind.

"What did I say?" she finally asked.

"You said…" he purposely spoke slowly. "John…I want you," He said. His smirk evolved into a huge grin.

"I did not say that," Elizabeth retorted immediately. "You are making that up."

"I'm only repeating what I heard."

"In your dreams," Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"No, Doctor it's apparently in _your_ dreams," he winked.

Elizabeth slapped him on the knee. "You're lying. What did I really say?"

"I already told you."

"I did _not_ say that," she repeated, but she was starting to doubt herself. She couldn't quite recall her dream at the moment, but she did vaguely remember that John had been part it.

"Well, you don't know for sure now, do you, Doctor? And you'll never know."

"Either way, I don't believe you, and I usually remember my dreams."

"Okay, then tell me what was your dream about and prove me wrong." John knew by the look of Elizabeth's face that she couldn't remember the dream if her life depended on it, at least not right now.

"It's seven in the morning and I haven't had my caffeine yet. I can't quite remember anything let alone a dream I had last night."

"All right we'll go and get some coffee, or what's left of the coffee, so you can start functioning."

"No, we need to go to my room first," Elizabeth said getting out of the bed and attempting to make it at the same time.

"What for? It's not like you can change."

"For starters, I can at least comb my hair, wash my face, and brush my teeth before my 08:00 meeting." John groaned. Elizabeth wonder if he heard her mention the meeting.

"I don't want to go to the girl's room again," he complained. "You know what we need to find? Living quarters with private bathrooms."

Either he didn't hear her mention the meeting, or he dreaded the ladies room more then the meetings. Elizabeth decided now was not the time to question John's new fears. "We need to do a lot of things, but first I need to go freshen up, and so could you."

"What's wrong with how I look?" John asked rubbing his hand over his face.

* * *

Elizabeth had dragged the half-asleep Major to her room to collect her toiletries then they headed to the restroom. 

Since it was early the restroom was empty, but before Elizabeth could freshen herself up. John announced that he needed to use the toilet. After several trips to the bathroom together over the last twenty-four hours, they both were beyond the embarrassment and it was becoming routine. The thought of this becoming routine gave her a shiver. Elizabeth did not want to be stuck to John any longer then was necessary.

When Elizabeth finally could stand in front of the mirror and freshen up, she saw that her hair was in need of a brush. After she brushed her teeth, she dug through her cosmetic bag for a brush but realized she head left it in her room. Instead she picked up her small facial towel and immersed it into cold water.

"Missing something," John asked, rubbing his hand over his face and chin again still deciding if he needed to shave or not this morning.

"I forgot my brush," she said trying to wring the water out of her towel with one hand.

John saw Elizabeth's sad attempt to wring her towel and took hold of one side of the towel and held it while she wrung the excess water out.

"Thank you," she said and placed the cool towel on her face.

John started looking through his pockets and found the comb he discovered yesterday.

"I have a comb," he offered. "It's clean. I've never used it."

Elizabeth had to force herself to hold back a laugh. She thanked him and took the comb and tried to use the small comb to brush through her tangles.

"Have you ever combed your hair?" she asked.

"Sometimes," he said combing his fingers through his hair, which only made it stick out more.

"I mean with a comb or brush?"

John thought for a bit, "Once upon a time. Besides isn't the 'I just got out of bed look' the new sexy look?"

"I don't know. I haven't been getting my subscriptions of InStyle."

"Do you think it's sexy?"

"I think you have a bad case of intergalactic bed head."

"Why, thank you, Doctor."

Elizabeth gave her appearance a last look into the mirror and decided her hair wasn't going to look any better. It looked like John's bad case of intergalactic bed head was rubbing off on her.

"I'm ready. How about you?"

John decided he didn't need to shave today. It wasn't like he was going off world and might meet a beautiful alien princess, and Elizabeth was already used to his scruffy appearance. "I'm good. Lead me to the green pastures."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, picked up her cosmetic bag, and headed out the door.

* * *

John and Elizabeth wandered into the lab to find Rodney and Carson asleep at the table. With their laptops still open. 

"Rodney?" Elizabeth called out.

Rodney stirred and blinked at them blankly. "Oh sorry, I must have dozed off for a bit there." Carson yawned as Rodney elbowed him to wake up.

"Did you two get any sleep?" Elizabeth asked.

"Some…I think," Carson said between yawns.

"I'm touched that you guys actually stayed up all night to try and separate us," John said.

"On the contrary, Major," Rodney began and lifted up his left hand and pointed to the obvious.

John choked back a laugh when he saw the two doctor's hands stuck together by the tip of their two fingers.

"What happened?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well we couldn't figure out how to break the bond and Carson had the brilliant idea to just try and test the blob in a small amount," Rodney explained.

"So you guys are stuck together too?"

"Not quite," Rodney said and looked down at his hand and decided to correct his answer. "Actually, for now, yes, but there is a slight difference from our results from yours."

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"Remember that unknown thing we found earlier? It is some sort of nanocyte. Instead giving people hallucinations and then killing you, this one "reads", if you will, people's DNA. It seems that the strength of the bond varies according to the compatibility of the two types of DNA. Some how your bond is a lot stronger then ours, the only reason I can think of right now is gender."

"Wait, you're saying that someone _made _this stuff?" John asked.

"Yes."

"Why the hell would anyone make this?"

"Beats me, but I think we have to go to the mainland, and look around the area for any possible past civilization or something. This might, I emphasize _might_ have been some ritual device or some—,"

"…funky handcuffs," John added. "If these are nanocytes can't we just zap them with an electromagnetic pulse from the EMP generator like last time?"

"We tried that already."

"Wait, you said the nanocyte reads DNA?" Elizabeth asked.

"Correct," Carson said. "In fact, both of your DNA was found within the data we were able to extract."

"That's unsettling," Elizabeth paused to think. "Okay, I guess we are going to have a field trip to the mainland."

"So, who's driving?" Just as John asked this, Carson and Rodney's fingers were released from the bond. "Now why didn't that happen for Elizabeth and me?"

"Like I said it has something to do with gender. I'm guessing like some sort of bonding ritual," Rodney explained.

"How do you know that?"

"I don't. That is why I said we had to go to the mainland." He looked over at Elizabeth. "Did I not just say that?"

"Boys, can we not stand here and argue. Let's go. I'm going to cancel whatever meetings I have today. Then we will go to the mainland." Elizabeth said, "Now go and get what ever you need, and we'll meet in the jumper bay in half an hour.

* * *

Thirty minutes later everyone was geared up and ready to go. Rodney was the designated driver and Lieutenant Ford his co-pilot. Carson was left behind; since he insisted that he had other work to do, but John suspected Carson passed since Rodney was flying the ship. 

John and Elizabeth sat in the seats behind the two pilots with their two hands hanging in the middle. John was telling Elizabeth to observe how Rodney couldn't fly the jumper in a straight line, even with the advanced Ancient technology assisting him. Elizabeth let out a chuckle.

"What are you two whispering about in the back, I can't quite hear?" Rodney asked. John and Elizabeth just continued whispering to themselves. "I feel like I'm driving two giddy teenagers on a date or something," Rodney said to Lieutenant Ford.

"Must I remind you that one of the 'giddy teenagers' you are referring to is your boss," John responded..

"Point taken, so that means you guys are talking about me. I'll let the two of you return to your discussion of my vast and superior knowledge with out further interruption."

After what felt like an eternity, they could see the shore of the mainland through the window of the jumper.

"Major, do you remember where we parked last time?"

"Yeah, right were that blinking thing is pointing at," John answered, pointing as the transparent screen popped up before them. "And easy on the landing. I bet that's how that thing got stuck on the hull of the ship when you scraped by that tree the other day."

"Hey, don't try to place the blame on me. I dared you and you accepted. Besides I got stuck to Carson trying to figure out a way to separate you two too. Don't I get any credit for that?"

"No, you guys were only stuck together for a couple of _hours_," John pointed out. "I've been stuck to Doctor Weir for a day, and this 'alien adhesive' of yours isn't unadhesiving anytime soon."

"That is why we are here." Rodney landed the jumper with a slight jolt. "We're here!" Rodney announced clapping his hands together.

"Didn't I say easy?" John said.

"I'm not the resident pilot here, and you're not the best teacher either," Rodney retorted.

Elizabeth was ready to slap both John and Rodney on the side of their heads. Did they always bicker like this? How the hell they every got through a mission without Teyla or Aidan beating the snot out of them was beyond her.

Not wanting to listen to any more banter for now and by the boyish shrug Aidan gave her as she raised her eyebrows, she was starting to sympathize with John's other team members. She stood up and started walking out the back of the jumper.

John was still thinking of something to say to Rodney when he realized his arm was being pulled behind him. Not wanting to lose an arm this early in the morning, he got up and grabbed his backpack on the way out and caught up with his other half. She looked a tad bit annoyed.

"What?"

"Do you two _always_ bicker like that?"

"Yeah, it's fun," John said with a proud smile. "It's always great to see Rodney's face when he's appalled or annoyed. His eyebrows furrow, his face scrunches up, his mouth hangs open, and he almost seems to turn red," John said with boyish enthusiasm.

"My face does not scrunch up," Rodney objected.

"See there it is," John pointed out to Elizabeth.

"I get the point." Elizabeth raised her hand to stop them both. "Let's get started. Where should we start?"

John recognized the change in Elizabeth's tone and took command.

"We'll split into groups of two. Ford you're with McKay. I'm with Doctor Weir for obvious reasons. We will take the left you. You guys take the right. Keep in radio contact. Okay, let's move out."

Each group headed out to their assigned designations. John held out his backpack for Elizabeth to fish out the radio.

"I brought an extra radio for you," he said after he saw the confused look Elizabeth gave him.

"Afraid I might get lost?"

"No, it's practical, so you don't have to keep getting the radio from my vest so you can talk."

"Okay," she found the radio and closed the backpack. "I just realized you've been wearing that vest all this time. Isn't it uncomfortable?"

"Not really. I'm use to it, besides all the pockets in my vest keep me occupied in all your meetings."

After they managed to secure the backpack onto John's back, they start to walk and search.

"So what else did you find in there other then the comb?" Elizabeth asked.

"You know, you've got your basic essential stuff, tourniquet, power bar, Swiss army knife, comb, mirror, matches, pain killers, etc."

"Mirror?"

"You know, so I can look my best when fighting the wraith."

"I have a feeling it's more like to make sure you look handsome for the next beautiful alien you encounter on your missions," Elizabeth teased.

"Hey that was a one time thing."

"That's what they all say."

"What has been McKay been telling you?"

"Mum's the word."

"You know, I could nag you all day, because I know exactly where you are going to be," he threatened.

"More reason to find this dead culture sooner then later."

They explored their designated area for about half and hour before Elizabeth spoke up.

"So how do we know when we've found something strange?"

John shrugged, "You see something strange and have Rodney check it out. Then he'll tell you that it's something strange."

"I don't see anything strange, but this is nice."

"Nice?" John turned his head to ask Elizabeth, and instead of watching where he was going, walked right into a low hanging branch. Elizabeth laughed.

"Yes, I love a walk in nature and being attacked by foliage." He ran has hand through his hair to make sure no alien objects were stuck in it. He definitely did not need any help to keep his hair sticking up.

"You never struck me as the walk in the park type," he continued. "I see you more like the hanging out on the balcony type."

"I like the balcony, but it's nice to get out of the city and take a walk out in nature," she explained. "I like nature. I just never have a chance to get out of the City. Back on earth, I would sit outside in my yard and have a nice up of hot coffee and just take in the view. Take in nature."

"Hey, if you ever want to take a trip here for a break, I'd be happy to fly you," John offered.

"Thank you John. That is very kind of you."

"Anything for the boss," he said with a smile.

They continued walking and found a small stream. They started to walk along side it.

"Does this stream, go towards the Athosian village?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't think this stream does. Have you been to the village?"

"Once, when the Athosians first moved on to the mainland, there was that party."

"Oh yeah, I remember that."

"Other then that, I haven't been on the mainland again. I wonder if the Ancients actually stayed on the mainland at one point."

"Looks like someone was here at some point in time," John said, when he found an odd shape stone half buried in the ground and covered with foliage. He brushed away the plants. The stone looked like a tablet or marker of some sort and was covered with worn writing.

"What is it?" said Elizabeth.

"I don't know, but I know it's definitely something strange."

John moved forward, leading Elizabeth onwards. As they walked they found more and more rocks strewn around the ground half buried by time and neglect.

"These look like ruins of some type." He said.

"They look almost like ancient Greek ruins. Maybe what ever was here before was destroyed when the wraith attacked the Ancients ten thousand years ago?" Elizabeth suggested.

"It's possible." John made a few clicks on his radio. "Rodney did you guys find anything?"

Rodney's voice crackled through. "We've found some stuff, but nothing that I think would help separate the two of you."

"I have a feeling you should come over here instead. We found what appear to be some ruins."

"What kind of ruins?"

"The ruined kind," John replied.

Elizabeth decided if they were going to get anywhere she would have to intervene. She lifted her radio to her mouth. "Rodney, they look like Ancient Greek ruins, it's hard to tell since everything is eroded and worn. We are going to continue exploring the vicinity, while you and Ford make your way here."

"All right," came Rodney's reply.

After Elizabeth was done talking, John took the radio from her hand, and replaced it with his side arm.

"What's this?"

"Just in case," he simply said and continued to lead the way around the ruins.

As they kept exploring, there were more and more large pieces of ruins. They could make out some outline of what seemed like building foundations, but there were no standing structures. There were crumbled walls and columns strewn all over the place, but there was also an abundant of plant life growing over the ruins as well. It was a sight where both death of the past and life of the present coincided.

"Everything looks pretty demolished."

Elizabeth nodded in agreement, her eyes scanned the area in search of something that would give a hint about who these people were, but she had a feeling that the wraith and time had done a good job of destroying any helpful evidence. Just as she was starting to loose hope, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something peculiar. It looked like a cave, but it was hard to tell since there was so much vegetation blocking what seemed to be the entrance.

"John, over there," she pointed to the cave. John looked over then back at Elizabeth and knew she was thinking the same thing as him. He brought up his P-90 in a defensive position as best as he could with his left hand and led them towards the mysterious opening.


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N:** Thanks Astrochick for Beta'ing. Again thanks for all the reviews. Here's the last chapter. Hopefully they answered all your questions. Enjoy. _

**Chapter 4**

The first thing John did when the reached the cave was shine the flash light from his P90 in between the plants and confirm that this was definitely a cave.

"Think we should check it out?" he asked. Elizabeth nodded, but she decided she would stay close to John, just in case.

John let go of his gun and started pulling at the vines blocking their entrance. Elizabeth stuck the gun she had back into the holster on John's leg, and was about to help him out.

"Ouch!" John cried. Elizabeth looked at John afraid she had done something wrong.

"What did I do?" she said.

"The vine bit me!"

"What?"

John held out his hand for Elizabeth to examine. There was a scratch and a small line of blood visibly forming.

"There are thorns, be careful they may look small, but they are vicious." John pulled out his dagger and started to cut through the vines, while Elizabeth carefully pulled the vines aside.

After they cleared enough of the prickly foliage, they proceeded with caution. Elizabeth reached into John's backpack and found an extra flashlight.

The passage was narrow. John and Elizabeth could barely stand next to each other without touching the sides of the wall.

"How deep do you think this cave is?" John thought out loud. He shined the light down the dark that seemed endless.

"I guess we'll find out," Elizabeth said shining her flashlight around the side of the walls hoping to find some clues as they continued walking down.

The continued walking through the cave and noticed that the walls surrounding them had reliefs depicting a story or an event along the two sides.

"I think this was some kind of temple," Elizabeth said. "Look at this," she pointed at a relief expertly carved into the wall. Even after the wear of time, the relief was very well preserved.

The relief Elizabeth pointed at showed three spheres of varying sizes, and below each of the three spheres were human figures.

Under the center sphere were the figures of a man and a woman standing back to back with each other. The sphere on the right had two men standing also standing back to back beneath it. The figures under the sphere on the left where standing in the same position, but the only difference was that, they were two women.

Below the relief were inscriptions, which Elizabeth used her hand to wipe off the dust.

"It looks like a strange form of Greek," Elizabeth observed.

"Can you read it? Aren't you like a protocol droid?"

"I think the protocol droid you're referring to is Dr. Daniel Jackson. Remember? I'm the resident diplomat."

"Oh right, which means you're Princess Leia, and that makes me…"

"Chewbacca?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of Han Solo." Elizabeth rolled her eyes and continued giving her attention to the inscriptions. "Since I am the dashing scruffy looking hero that always seems to save the day."

"You've got the scruffy looking part down," Elizabeth muttered to herself. "I don't know what it says. I do know several languages, but unfortunately Greek isn't one of them. If it were Ancient then I'd be able to figure it out. Maybe Rodney or one of the other scientist back in Atlantis can translate this."

"This picture reminds me of that creation myth where the people were stuck together and they looked like a giant ball with four arms, four legs, and two faces. One day they pissed off some god and he chopped them in half. Then some other god fixed them up into the present human form." John mused.

"Plato's _Symposium_, you've read that?"

"In translation, of course."

"Of course, you read _War and Peace_. I shouldn't be surprised, but yet I am." John gave her a little smirk in return.

"If you're right and this coincides with that myth, then these three spheres are the sun, moon, and earth, and these human figures on the bottom are the Children of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, but instead of being giant rolling –"

"Kegs," John supplied.

"Excuse me?"

"Kegs, I always imagined them as big rolling kegs."

Elizabeth looked at John oddly and continued to walk down the narrow passageway until they reached the end. They found themselves in a circular domed room with an opening at the pinnacle of the dome. As the whole structure had been long neglected plants were growing about the opening and some vines were hanging down the hole like a rope. The vines continued crawling through the hole and adorned the walls like new decorations.

In the center of the room was a fountain that contained a sculpture of a man and a woman facing each other with their right hands clasped together. Water dripped between their palms into the fountain bowl.

"Did you ever see this when you were flying over to the village?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, we always assumed it was a hill or something."

They started to walk along the right side of the wall and found that under the vines and plants were more reliefs.

"Do you suppose these are instructions?" Elizabeth asked after they made a round around the room.

"Your guess is as good as mine," John returned, and they continued to explore the room until Rodney's voice came crackling through the radio.

"Major, we are at the ruins. Where are you guys?"

"It's about time." John replied with a click on his radio. "There's a cave around the back of the ruins. We are inside."

"A cave? I don't see a cave. I see a lot of buildings that have _caved_ in."

"Rodney, why don't you walk around and take a look," John rolled his eyes and looked Elizabeth, who just shrugged her shoulders.

A few moments later, Rodney and Aiden arrived in the room that John and Elizabeth were in.

"What is this place?"

"Don't know. We were hoping you could tell us," said John.

"From what I can tell from the totally demolished ruins, they look like a derivative of ancient Greek architecture, but you guys knew that already. This may explain why the Greeks have their own account of Atlantis." Rodney was getting more excited, and the more excited he was the faster he started talking. "Which means that it is possible that this was the previous location of the ancestors of the Ancient Greeks."

"So, these were the ancient ancient Greeks?" John asked, trying to grasp Rodney's conclusion.

"Quite possibly," Rodney replied, and walked towards the fountain in the center of the room observing that there were inscriptions along the rim of the bowl underneath the sculpture. "Interesting, there's also inscriptions also here too."

"We noticed that too. I'm guessing the inscriptions describe the reliefs. Can you read it?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, it's all Greek to me," Rodney replied in his attempt at a bad joke.

"We know its Greek. Do you know how to read it?" John asked impatiently.

"Well let see…there's kappa, theta, lambda…," Rodney said as he pointed to the figures he recognized on the wall.

"Enough with the frat house names, can you translate the inscription?"

"What do I look like to you? A linguist?"

"Well you claim to be a genius, I figured have a problem, ask McKay. Need a translation, ask McKay. Need to be annoyed, ask McKay."

"Very funny, Major. Anyway if we gather all the data of these inscriptions and take it back to Atlantis I can get some help deciphering this warped version of Greek."

"All right boys, let's gather all the data we need and figure out what we have got ourselves into," Elizabeth said with a sigh. This was going to be another long day.

* * *

Two hours later after being in a musty old temple cave with two men who wouldn't stop talking and one who's only two words were either "yes, sir" or "no, sir", Elizabeth was glad to be back in Atlantis, but she was not glad that she was no closer to being separated from John.

"Doctor Weir?" Elizabeth felt a tug on her left hand. Apparently her other half had stopped moving, and she realized that for a moment she had forgotten that her other half was still there. "The commissary is _that_ way," John pointed down another corridor.

"Right."

"You okay?"

"I'm fine. I was just thinking."

"About what? Me?" He asked sheepishly.

"Actually, I was."

"Really?" This was getting interesting John thought to himself.

"I was thinking. What are we going to do if all this research of this temple is a dead end? First of all, we don't even know if this temple is even related to this blob."

"I guess we'd become the dynamic duo," he teased.

"Yes, we'd make a great team unfolding blankets and wringing out towels. First of all you can't go off world any more, because I'm needed here. This means that you would be going to every meeting and briefing with me."

John raised his hand to stop her. "Let's not think about that just yet. This might just work. If not, we'll figure out another way, and I'm sure McKay would be more then willing to help us after I coerce him in the utmost civilized way." Elizabeth smiled, as they continued walking towards the right direction.

* * *

After a quick lunch and a not so quick meeting, John and Elizabeth arrived at Rodney's lab.

On their approach, Rodney glanced up and resumed his concentration on the laptop in front of him.

"There you guys are. I was wondering where you two dallied off to," he said without looking up.

"Dallied? I wouldn't call sitting in an unexpected meeting dallying." John gave Elizabeth a death glare.

"So how are the translations coming along?" Elizabeth asked.

"With the help of Dr. Melnitz, we were able to concluded that the language is relatively similar to Ancient Greek, which would be expected with ten thousand years of evolution between this and present day Greek, but there also seems to be Ancient mixed in as well."

"Ancient?" Elizabeth said.

"Yes, at first we didn't recognize it because it was written in a very strange script. Almost like a calligraphic version of the Ancient words. As soon as we figured out that much, the translations came along pretty easily. Here." He turned the laptop to face Elizabeth so she would observe their findings herself.

"You're right, it is a very odd script of Ancient. That's why I didn't recognize it. So how much have you translated?"

"Well so far we've translated the corridor leading up to the room and most of the room. Most of the walls were filled with pictures instead of inscriptions. It also made it easier, when we figured out it was basically the same creation myth that could be found in –"

"Plato's _Symposium_," John supplied. Rodney stopped talking and looked at John. "What? I read it in my spare time when I was based in Antarctica."

"First I found out you're Mensa, now I find out you read _Symposium_ for fun. What's next? Your IQ score is almost as high as mine?"

Before John could blurt out his IQ score, Elizabeth spoke first. "Yes, we are familiar with that myth. What does it have to do with the reliefs?"

"It's basically a retelling of the creation myth with obvious differences." Rodney clicked a button on the laptop and a picture of the relief of the three spheres and the three figures beneath them appeared. "The three spheres are the sun, earth, and moon, and the man-man, man-woman, and the woman-woman are the children of the sun, earth, and moon, respectively. Unlike Plato's myth these people are obviously not a big ball with arms and legs."

"Kegs," John said.

Rodney stopped and stared at John again and then continued. "As I was saying, instead of being literally a big rolling ball with arms and legs, an object called the "sphere of destiny" bonded these people."

"Isn't that a Celtic or Irish myth?" John wondered.

"I said 'sphere' not 'spear'," Rodney corrected.

"So these "sphere of destiny" is it what I think it is?" John asked and held up their joined hands.

"Yes, Major, it is, as you so eloquently call it, 'the blob'," Rodney said and continued. "Basically, from the writings in the domed room. It is basically a wedding ritual of some sorts. Like the symbolic binding of souls back on Earth."

"That makes sense," Elizabeth said. "On Earth, a number of cultures have a symbolic binding as part of their wedding ceremonies. Hindus tie the bride and groom's hands with red thread. In Cambodia, a string is tied between the couple's wrist. In the Ukraine, they have a ritual cloth that wraps around the couples wrists, and the Greeks and Thais have string or ribbon crowns that link the couple."

"But these are symbolic. This takes it one step further," John said.

"Yes, this sphere of destiny is actually a highly technological evolved type of natural selection," Rodney began to explain.

"Unnatural you mean," John muttered.

"This device—"

"Now we are calling this a device?" John interrupted.

"This device," Rodney continued, "is able to check the compatibility between two people by their DNA. At least that's the only conclusion I can come up with so far."

"Is that even possible?"

"Apparently if you believe in soulmates or not, this thing would help reinforce the belief or disbelief."

"So you are saying this is like a high tech form of matchmaking?" Elizabeth said.

"Something like that. From the translations, if the bond lasts longer then a cycle of the sun, the two lost souls have found their other half."

"That means you and Beckett just weren't meant to be," John teased.

"Yes, fortunately, but you two are," Rodney shot back. John looked away pretending he did not hear Rodney's last comment, while Elizabeth started to become more interested in the image on laptop before her.

"The whole wedding ritual is described on the reliefs in the circular room." He clicked on the laptop again and another picture appeared. "The ritual begins with the couple standing face to face and bonding their right hands together with the sphere. Then they basically have to spend the day stuck to each other like that. It's symbolic of the two souls keeping an eye on each other's back. Kind of like a 'I watch your back. You watch my back' type of thing."

"If this is only a ritual, then that means this bond is temporary. Cause I think it would be a bit odd for every married couple in the village to be stuck together like that especially when it comes to consummating the marriage. I'm guessing having your hands in that position would be a bit awkward. Wouldn't it be in the way or something?"

Elizabeth elbowed John to shut up.

"Awkward, but not impossible," Rodney simply said. "But by the way your hands are bonded together nothing is in the way there. So if you two were to consummate a marriage, you two are bonded in the perfect position."

Elizabeth glared a John and was ready to change the subject, but instead she choked. At least this would give her an excuse for her flushed face, she hoped.

"That's not funny, McKay," John said, when he saw Elizabeth cough.

"Really? I thought it was quite funny."

"You just made Doctor Weir, choke," John said turning his attention to Elizabeth, "Are you okay?"

"Then maybe you can gave her CPR," Rodney suggested, still teasing John.

Elizabeth raised her hand to signal she was fine. "I'm fine. I'm fine." She cleared her throat one last time. "So after the twenty-four hours, what's next?"

"After the twenty-four hours and the bond is still strong. The couple reaches the next stage of the blending of the 'fluids of life'."

"What?" John and Elizabeth exclaimed at the same time.

Rodney had to hold back a laugh. "You have to blend the fluid of life or stay stuck together forever."

"What exactly is this 'fluid of life'?" Elizabeth finally asked.

"It's blood," Rodney had to hold back another laugh at the relief on Elizabeth's face and the blank look on John's face. "Basically, after sticking themselves together, they then mutilate each other."

"Hey love hurts," John said.

"I take it that this is the representation of the couple sacrificing a bit of themselves for the other," Elizabeth said.

"Yes, literally."

"So, the blending of the blood would break the bond?" John asked.

"No, this is where the fountain and the hole in the roof comes in. It says, 'under the gaze of the sun and the moon, the children of the earth shall blend and return to the earth'. Now I'm guessing, it means very early in the morning, when the moon can still be seen, and the sun is just beginning to rise."

"You're saying that we have to be at the temple at the butt crack of dawn?" exclaimed John.

"Pretty much. So after you cut yourselves, and the blood blends over the blob. It will detect the presence of the two blood types and should wash away under the fountain water."

"Is there something special in the fountain water that requires us to go there to break this bond?"

"Oh, I don't know, it might make no difference at all and just be the nice gothic atmosphere," smirked Rodney.

"And the timing. Is there a difference to when we do this?"

"John, has a good point, Rodney. If we can separate now without having to wait, we should try it."

"We could try it, but if it doesn't work you'd have to cut each other twice."

"John already cut me twice. What's two more times?"

"Hey, I got cut too," whined John.

"Yes, but not by me."

"It was an accident!"

"I know." Elizabeth returned her attention to Rodney. "Can we try it with the blob samples we have here already? You said it already had read our DNA. You can just take some blood from us and see if it works." Rodney nodded. "All right, lets pay the good Doctor another visit."

* * *

In the infirmary, Rodney held up a test tub that contained John and Elizabeth's blood and a small sample of the blob. "Okay, I'm going to pour in the water," Rodney announced.

He poured several drops of water into the tube. The blood started to swirl within the water until Rodney shook the tube and the liquid turned slightly clearer and less vicious, but the sample blob was still in one piece.

"I guess there is something in the water." Rodney said, "and it's probably a safe assumption that timing is important too."

John sighed. "All right, tomorrow morning we'll fly to the mainland. What time does the sun rise here?"

"Between five or six," Rodney said.

"Okay then, we'll meet in the jumper bay at 03:00 then."

"Wait a minute. We?" Carson asked.

"Yes, the four of us."

"Why do I have to go?" bleated Carson.

"Don't worry, Carson you're not driving. I am," Rodney said proudly.

"That's what I was afraid of," Carson muttered under this breath.

"I think it would be better if you're there, Carson, in case one of us gets shaky hands when we are blending the 'fluid of life'." Elizabeth said.

"Fair enough, we'll see you tonight."

"Ditto."

When they were out of the infirmary, Elizabeth asked, "Isn't 03:00 a bit too early?"

"Yeah, it is, but you know scientists. They are always at least half an hour late to everything. They are always doing some science project and lose track of time," he explained.

"It's a safe bet, that at three in the morning Rodney and Carson would be sleeping and not working on some science project."

"That is even more reason to meet up at 03:00."

* * *

It was 03:35 when Rodney and Carson finally stumbled into the bay. "Sorry we're late had to get a few things before we headed out," Rodney explained. "And Carson wanted to bring his doctor's kit along too. Just in case."

Elizabeth was already falling asleep in the passenger seat, and didn't hear a word that Rodney said. She had not been up this early, in a very long time. It didn't help that she felt exhausted. Spending an entire day with John was tiring enough, but spending an entire day with both John and Rodney, was like spending a day with the most difficult dignitaries in the galaxy. The only problem with these two dignitaries was that there was no negotiations taking place meaning there was no end to their bickering and bantering. They just kept going and going.

Elizabeth was relieved when they had gone their separate ways so they could squeeze in some sleep before their early trip. But as soon as John woke her up a few hours later, she realized she wanted to slap him and go back to sleep. She was able to resist the urge when she saw he was pathetically tired as she was and reluctantly got up. Now here she was falling asleep before the flight even started.

John saw that Elizabeth was no where near a coherent state at the moment and got up from his seat to allow Rodney and Carson to get through to the pilot seats without having to climb over their hands.

"Is everyone ready?" Rodney asked sounding rather awake.

"Yes, Rodney, let's go." John sat back down on his seat. "Why are you so perky at this hour?"

"I had a power nap. And don't get all cranky on me. You're the one who said 03:00."

"Yes, and I'm beginning to regret it," John muttered to himself.

Twenty minutes later, they flew over the mainland's shore.

"Rodney, try to land the jumper close to the ruins," John said.

"Major, there are rocks and trees everywhere, and I usually won't admit things, but I'll admit that when comes to piloting a jumper, I'm not as well practiced as you."

John was too sleepy to think of something to retort. "Just land as close as you can, I don't think it would be safe for Elizabeth to be walking through ruins when she's half conscious, and I don't think I can carry her either."

"If you can't carry her, how will you carry your bride over the threshold of your new house?" Rodney teased.

"Rodney you are so lucky that it's my right hand that is stuck to Elizabeth."

"Rodney, I think you should cut it out. It's not fair to Doctor Weir," Carson said.

"Elizabeth doesn't care, besides look at her, she's gone."

"I'm not gone. I'm just resting my eyes, and heard everything you've said. Don't worry. I'll keep everything that you said in mind when I am doing your evaluations." Elizabeth muttered.

John leaned forward to whisper to Rodney, "She doesn't forget anything."

"Okay we're here," Rodney quickly changed the subject. "The two of you still have plenty of time to get to the temple and wait for sunrise."

"Aren't you two coming with us?"

"I'm going to do some more exploring around here, maybe we can find another 'sphere of destiny' lying around. And Carson can stay here and make sure the two of you mutilate each other on time."

"How will Carson know?

"While you were sleeping – "

"Isn't that the name of a movie?" John interrupted.

"Yes it is, and no I haven't seen it. Now while you were resting, I figured out a program that would tell you exactly when the time the sun and moon are visible in the sky. I'm sure you two and figure it out when you are in the room, but just in case you two pass out or something, Carson can keep watch."

"So you are going to find more blobs in the dark?" John asked.

"No, I'm going to wait until there is more light."

"Of course you are." John stood up and gently tugged on Elizabeth's hand. "Come on, Doctor, time for your morning stroll with nature."

John felt like he was a leading a blind person through the unfamiliar ruins with his small flashlight. Elizabeth was slowly waking up, but the dark morning and the cool air were not helping. She wrapped her arm around her body for some warmth.

"Are you cold?" John asked.

"Just a little, it's nothing to worry about."

"You know it's going to be colder in the temple."

"I'm fine, John, really," Elizabeth insisted.

"So what do you plan on doing as soon as we are separated?"

"I plan on taking a nice long shower, then go to my office and continue reading through reports alone. What about you?"

"You sure know how to party. I'm going to Disneyland!" he said with feigned excitement. Elizabeth laughed tiredly. "Okay, it's too early for that joke."

"Yes. Much too early," she agreed.

"I'm pretty much going to do the same thing minus the briefings and report reading of course."

"Of course."

They reached the opening of the cave, and quickly proceeded into their final destination of the domed room.

"We still have," John looked at his watch, "a lot of time before sunrise. Now I'm really regretting the 03:00 meeting time."

"Well, you were right. They didn't arrive until 03:30."

"03:35," he corrected.

"If only Rodney had told us he knew exactly want time the sun and moon would be visible overhead, we wouldn't be sitting around waiting."

"He _did_ make the program while we were sleeping," Elizabeth reminded. "By the time he knew the time, we were already up, so doesn't really matter now does it?"

"I guess not."

They found a spot in the room that looked dry and semi-comfortable and settled themselves down, and looked out the hole on the top of the dome. They both sat together in silence as they waited for the sun to rise.

What felt like moments later. Elizabeth felt John gently shaking her shoulder to wake her. She had fallen asleep again, and had been using John's shoulder as a headrest.

"Sorry, I must have fallen asleep again."

"You're forgiven it's early," John smiled. "Beckett just radioed in. He said it's almost time, and from the looks of things he's right." John pointed to the hole in the dome, and they could see a full moon peering through it, and the sky was no longer dark but slowly brightening with the rising sun.

They stood before the fountain that belonged to the Children of the Earth and waited.

"So how are we supposed to cut each other?" Elizabeth asked.

"Rodney said just a small cut would suffice." He brought out his dagger. "Here it's clean, I made sure to have it sterilized when were back at Atlantis."

"When?"

"When we went back earlier."

"Why don't I remember this? Was there a moment I was detached from you and didn't know it?"

"Major?" Interrupted a crackling voice on the radio.

"Beckett, I'm listening, and we are in position."

"All right, according to the device it should be time in about two minutes. Good luck."

"Thanks."

Just then from a previously unseen slit that was between one of the walls, sunlight streamed through the room, and despite the overgrowth of foliage covering the hole above them, moonlight was still able to stream in overhead.

Both sunlight and moonlight were shining upon the fountain signaling that the time for the ritual had begun.

"Funny that we never noticed that slit before," John said trying to ease Elizabeth's anxiety. "Here," he handed her the dagger, "it would be easier if you just cut yourself. You don't have to cut me."

She held the dagger in her hands, but she couldn't bring her self to cut her own skin. She slowly brought the tip of the dagger onto her skin. Before she made the cut, she suddenly remembered the dream she had the day before. Though she wasn't aware what she had said out loud that night, but she remembered clearly what she had said in the dream, and now she couldn't bring herself to cut herself. "John, I can't do it. Cutting myself on accident is one thing, but cutting myself on purpose. I can't do it. And before you suggest me to cut you instead, I can't do that either. You're going to have to do it for the both of us."

John looked into Elizabeth's eyes to make sure she was serious, and she looked dead serious. "All right, you promise you won't hold it against me," he joked in an attempt to lighten atmosphere.

"Let just say it was an order."

"Yes, Ma'am."

John held on tight to Elizabeth's hand in case she instinctively flinched when he made the cut, but she didn't flinch. Her crimson blood flowed freely from where he cut her on her palm. Her blood was already flowing between their palms when he prepared to cut his own palm. He was hesitant about cutting himself, as he was hesitant in cutting Elizabeth's hand. He was only able to cut her a bit more easily, since she had ordered him to. Elizabeth was right. Cutting oneself accidentally was one thing, but cutting oneself on purpose was another.

"John?" Elizabeth looked into his eyes.

"I'm fine, I can do it."

"Here," she took the dagger from him, and made a small cut on his palm. Now his blood flowed with hers between their palms and over the sphere of destiny.

John let out a breath, "Thanks."

"We're even now," Elizabeth smiled. "Let's hope with the 'gaze of the sun and moon our souls can return to the earth' and let us go."

They placed their hands under the streaming water from hands of the hand-clasped couple on the fountain. The water was cool and soothed on their newly formed cuts. The water washed away their blood stained hands and along with the blood, they could feel the bond of the sphere was weakening. Gradually the bond dissolved freeing their hands. The blood also stopped flowing from their hands.

John brought up his hands for close observation. "The cut is healed."

Elizabeth looked at her own hand, "Your right. All the cuts are healed. Even the one you gave me the other day. There _is_ something in the water."

Elizabeth took the radio out of John's vest. "Carson, it worked, and we are fine. We are heading back right now," she said excitedly. "Is Rodney back yet?"

"Rodney? Yes, he's back, and he found some more of those silly putty things."

"Tell him to be careful, we don't need anymore high tech matchmaking. We still need to worry about more important things like the wraith. We'll see you soon."

As they made their way through the ruins back to the jumper, it felt odd to Elizabeth that she was no longer holding John's hand. She didn't think she would get used to being around John in such a short time. But she was glad to finally have her left hand back to herself.

John, on the other hand, also felt a odd feeling when he no longer had to hold Elizabeth's hand, but a couple of times when they were cross over the stream or a log, it felt normal for him to hold on to Elizabeth's hand as he helped her over. It was a strange feeling, but he knew that in time everything would be back to normal.

* * *

After a nice long shower and a couple hours alone, Elizabeth's day had continued like any other day, and she was back in her office reading reports and preparing for the first briefing of the day. She thought that as soon as she got rid of John she would be able to return to work, but she was wrong. The dream she remembered bothered her.

She heard her office door slide open. "John, I thought you had gone back to sleep."

He was leaning on the side of the door when she greeted him. "I thought about it, but I think the shower woke me up. Talk to me in a couple hours. I think I'll be ready for a nap then," he said and sat down in the chair in front of her desk.

"So what can I do for you?"

"I had nothing better to do. I thought I would pay you a visit."

"Rodney is never going to pay the hundred dollars is he?"

"Nope, he kept babbling on about the new blobs he found this morning, and I gave up and came here."

"I remember the dream I had the other day."

"Excuse me?"

"The first night we spent together. You said that I said something in my sleep."

"Oh, so you know what you said?" John crossed his arms over his chest as he mused over Elizabeth attempt to clear her name.  
"Yes, and I know I didn't say what you said I said."

"Alright, what did you say?"

"I believe I said…" Elizabeth hesitated as she remembered the dream again. John raised his eyebrows waiting for her answer. "I said, 'John, don't'."

John sat there in silence. He knew that was what she said that night, but he didn't know what her was haunting her dreams that night. He remembered Elizabeth sleeping very uneasily and breathing heavily as if something was chasing her. He was about to wake and tell her it was a dream, but when his hand caressed her face to comfort her, she said "John, don't". At first he wasn't sure if she was awake or not, but he later realized she was talking in her sleep and let her continue to sleep. Now that she remembered her dream, John was curious at what was happening in her dream.

"So, is there a story behind why you said that?" He finally asked.

"It was just a dream."

"Are you sure it wasn't a nightmare?"

"Look, we are all afraid; nightmares are a common occurrence around Atlantis, especially with the constant threat of the wraith in the back of our minds."

"Elizabeth," John leaned forward placing his elbows on her desk and looked her straight in the eye. "Tell me what your dream was about?"

Elizabeth took in a deep breath. She was afraid he was going to ask her that. She wasn't sure how he would respond to a dream like this one.

"I dreamt that the hive ships had arrived earlier then we predicted. We were completely unprepared. We had nowhere to go, but through the gate to another wraith infested planet. We finally picked the best planet and sent all of the crew and the Athosians through, hoping they would have a better chance in surviving on their own. Only a hand full of us stayed behind. While Ford, Bates, Rodney, and others who volunteered to stay behind were trying to hold off the wraiths for as long as possible, you and I were in the control room preparing to destroy the city and the stargate. When we got the signal to activate the self-destruct, you looked at me and said 'I have no problem with sacrificing my own life for earth, but I feel that in activating this, it is as bad as stabbing you with my dagger myself.' That was when I said 'John, don't.' and I continued to explain to you that I was also authorizing this self-destruct, and I made a bad joke about us both being suicidal. But you just wouldn't let it go. We were about to die in less then two minutes and you were feeling guilty for my death. That was when I took your dagger and…stabbed myself."

"So you stabbed yourself to save my guilty conscience?"

"Like I said it was only a dream, John. It doesn't mean anything," she reassured. "I'm sure you've had dreams that don't make any sense either."

"Yes, but one question."

"What is it?"

"Is that why you made it an order for me to cut you earlier today?" he asked.

"Actually, no, I didn't know why made that an order. I guess…"

"To ease my guilty conscience?"

"That is the reason why I didn't want to tell you."

"What? I'm just teasing. I know that dreams are just a glimpse into to our subconscious to show us how messed up we really are in our heads. Besides I'm still sticking to my version."

"You're version?"

"You know the version where you said "John, I want you," John smirked.

"Of course that is _your_ version and _not_ the truth."

"But it's your word against mine."

Elizabeth sat up straight and folded her hands on her desk in front of her. "Major, like you told Rodney earlier, I don't forget _anything_." she said.

"Of course you don't, Doctor, and I wouldn't have it any other way," John said with another smirk as he got up to leave.

"Ditto," she said to herself, after John had already left and the door slid close.

Finis


End file.
